Hungry Spirits and Sleepless Nights

From the dense, whispering woods of Oklahoma to the sterile, blood-stained floors of a Soviet research facility, this week we're exploring the limits of human endurance - what happens when those limits are shattered. 

We're committed to taking a page out of Alvin Schwartz book, and we're giving you some scary stories to tell in the dark - technically. 

Grab a flashlight and lock your doors. We're ready to chat and yap into the darkness. 

Voice Editing - ElevenLabs 

Distribution: Buzzsprout

Editing and Production: Riverside.FM Studios

Music: "Good Things Take Time" by Otto.mp3 and Upbeat

Transcript

unknown 0:02

Woo!

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Crispy!

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Crispy girl! I swear that the beer crack would be your intro to any type of movie, rather it was like horror, comedy, action, period piece romance.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

And if it wasn't the whole movie would be very fucking inaccurate.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Even for a period piece romance, though, like Withering Heights.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Especially in a period piece romance. The fuck? That was a really hard thing to say.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Have another beer.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Period peace romance.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Period peace romance.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Like a period piece.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

What the fuck is that? What the fuck is a period piece?

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Like a like from the 1500s. It's like Bridgetton.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Oh girl. Nobody watched that shit.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

I don't watch Bridgetton.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

I've never watched Bridgetton either.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

But I do like a good period piece. Like Kingdom of Heaven. It's really fucking good. It's about the Third Crusade. Or Withering Heights, I just watched. That was Kunty. Are you okay?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

My eye keeps twitching. I need potassium.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

I have bananas. They're right there.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I don't like bananas. Fuck them bananas.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Okay, well. Calm down, Johnny. Sassy pants. It's a good thing that we're not talking about, I guess, romance pieces today, though. So we're actually gonna tell scary story.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Ah. Yes, he's so excited. Is yours based on a true story?

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Mine actually is. Mine's um coming from my boyfriend. It was a story that he had from when he first started trucking over the road. Is yours based on a true story though?

SPEAKER_02 1:57

I honestly have no fucking idea. It could be. I don't I don't have any credible sources to tell me if it's a true story or not.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

So it never like it didn't happen to you personally.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

No, but it is a it's a creepy ass story though.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Well, we're here for it then.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

So I'm gonna know as I'm ready to chat and yap about it.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Yes. Let you go. Along with a 2019 movie adoption by the same name. Brandon and I will read a story each. One is based on true events, and one is based on the creative writing mind of Creepypasta. We hope that these stories send chills down your spine and remind you that there's more than what meets the eye that you've been warned. Have you seen Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark?

SPEAKER_02 3:21

We're gonna take a break before we just started. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

You know what? Then I think I'm just gonna read mine. The movie is really good. The movie is based off of the book. There's a lot of the things in the movie that are in the book. I can't believe you've never read those books. There's three of them. They were at Kinsler.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

What the fuck do I look like?

SPEAKER_03 3:48

All right. Well you ready for that break now, girl?

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

And break. Okay, dance break. Dance break. Story one Oklahoma Wendigo.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

It's the summer of 2022. I've been over the road for months now, hauling a flatbed. By then, the cab of the truck became my entire world. It's a strange life living in a metal box, watching the world through a windshield. Usually, the unusual stuff is surface level. Just a panicked hitchhiker at the rest stop or the glowing eyes of a deer caught in the high beams of a winding back road. I've always been a loner. But there's a specific kind of silence that happens when you're a man of color driving through the south. You learn to read the maps differently. You learn that towns have sundown written in the air long before the sun actually sets on the horizon. I had a schedule. Drive by day, disappear by night. But time is a thief. A late load meant I was behind in the middle of the night. Interstate 35 South is tricky at 3 a.m. The fatigue starts to set in, the heavy magnet pull behind your eyes. I missed my exit. A simple mistake, I thought. I took a right, and then another right, just trying to loop back. I ended up losing the pavement, and am now on a dirt road, the red dust kicking up on my taillights like crimson fog. The witching hour isn't just a phase. It's a weight. The air of the cab felt thick, like I was driving through water. I saw a house. It stood solitary against an ocean of corn. Every window was pitched black, except for a single flickering light post at the edge of the field. As I rolled past, I saw something moving in the stocks. At first, my mind tried to save me. It's just a deer, I told myself. It may be a stray cow. Then the shadow stretched. It didn't just move. It unfolded. It grew taller and taller until it was towering over the light post itself. At the exact moment, the radio cut into a sharp, static hiss, and then dead silence. Even in the distant glow of the highway, a streetlight seemed to vanish, swallowed by the black. A cold sweat broke across my skin, the kind that makes you feel like your clothes are wet. I felt a gaze on me, not a look, but a pressure. Something ancient and hungry was weighing me down. I buried my foot into the gas, fifty miles per hour on a dirt road, and a flatbed is suicide. But I didn't care. I flipped on every light switch on the dash, fog lights, auxiliary, side lights, everything. Desperate to push back the dark. I blew through stop signs, the trailer bouncing violently behind me. I hit the pavement of the connecting road and took a turn so hard I thought I'd flip. I look in the rearview mirror for a second. I wish I hadn't. It was there, a tall, emaciated creature. Its skin stretched like gray parchment paper over bone. It had eyes that didn't reflect light, a dull, maleficent red. Its fingers were impossibly long, ending in hooks like nails, a wendigo, a spirit of hunger, and I was trespassing on its hunting ground. My chest tightened. It felt like a massive, invisible hand that had reached through the glass and squeezed my heart, cutting off my breath. I grabbed my phone and called a friend. I just needed to hear a human voice, especially one who would understand what was happening to me. As soon as she picked up, the spell snapped. The radio clicks back on, and the familiar hum of the tires on the interstate returned. Even the lights of the highway appeared like a string of pearls in the distance. I made my delivery, but I never left that road behind me. Even now, my chest still gets tight. My skin crawls when retelling the story. I know my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. It was a ravenous hunger that almost got me. So if you're on the road at 3 a.m. and your radio goes off, don't look in the mirrors. Just keep driving.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

And that is Wendigo, Oklahoma. Um, true story. By told by my boyfriend that happened, God, he was four months into his trucking with Systems, um, which is a flatbed company based out of Washington State. And he was gone five, six nights a week. And it's okay, girl. And I remember, so I wasn't the person he called, um, a mutual friend of ours. It's someone he he spoke to, and the way that she tells the story and the way that he recalls the story is the same way. And it gives me chills every time I hear him talk about it. Because he's uh he's just like us. I mean, he's a true believer that there is forces out there, there are spirits out there, especially in Oklahoma on Native American land, on tortured land. Those things can come up, things can go bump in the night during the witching hour. And I think from that point on, I never I can never remember him actually driving at that point. Anyways, child. That was my fucking story, bitch.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

That was a good one. Wasn't that good? Yeah, wendigos are fucking scary.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Have you ever came across something that you thought was a wendigo?

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Uh we when I lived in Utah, um, there's a lot of skinwalkers out there. And we lived I guess you don't you didn't know out there because you hated me.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Oh, there ain't no other way.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

But um basically we lived in like this little suburb. It was ten or fifteen minutes outside of town. Yeah. It was in the middle of fucking nowhere. I mean there's other people by us, but it was a pitch fucking block out there.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Uh and we saw some pretty questionable things. And it was Utah, and it's not a desert, so you do the math. Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

You want to put two and two together and you're like, that's what I was trying to say.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

No, no, I got you, I got you.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Um scary shit. Uh I've never come across anything like that. I've I've had paranormal experiences in my life, but never of like a skinwalker, a windigo, never anything like in the Appalachian, nothing like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Have you heard about the Skinwalker Ranch?

SPEAKER_03 11:40

No.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

I'm pretty sure it's in Utah. Or somewhere in the Four Corners.

SPEAKER_03 11:45

Really?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I'm pretty sure. It's like somewhere it's either in Arizona or Utah. Colorado, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

So it's on the west side.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

It's not like it's where all this like really weird shit happens, like aliens, UFOs, skinwalkers, paranormal forces, and shit like that. It's actually a series on Netflix.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Is it really?

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

What's it called?

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Skinwalker Ranch.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

It's like it's more like a like a documentary almost. I don't watch all I didn't watch it, but I know of it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Interesting. Yeah, cool. Okay. So what is yours actually called? Does it have a name from uh creepypasta?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

So it's called the Russian Sleep Experiment.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Oh no. Yeah. I'm excited for this one.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Uh so I got this story. I've heard this story when I because I listened to a lot of like true crime horror podcasts, and I heard this uh from one of the podcasts I listened to a lot. It's called the Russian Sleep Experiment. Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five people awake for 15 days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them, since it was toxic and high concentrations. This was before closed circuit cameras, so they had only microphones and five-inch thick glass porthole-sized windows into the chamber to monitor them. The chamber was stocked with books and cots to sleep on, but no bedding, as well as running water, a toilet, and enough dried food to last all five for over a month. The test subjects were political prisoners deemed enemies of the state during World War II. Everything was fine for the first five days. The subjects hardly complained, having been promised falsely that they would be freed if they submitted to the test and did not sleep for 30 days. Their conversations and activities were monitored, and it was noted that they continued to talk about increasingly traumatic incidents in their past. The general tone of the conversations took on a darker aspect after the four-day mark. After five days, they started to complain about the circumstances and events that led them to where they were and started to demonstrate severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began alternately whispering into the microphones and one-way mirrored portholes. Oddly enough, they all seemed to think that they could win the trust of the experiments by turning over their comrades, the other subjects, in captivity with them. At first, the search researchers suspected this was an effect of the gas itself. After nine days, the first of them started screaming. He ran the length of the chamber repeatedly, yelling at the top of his lungs for three hours straight, at which point he continued attempting to scream, but was only able to proceed or produce occasional squeaks. The researchers postulated that he had physically torn his vocal cords. The most surprising thing about his behavior was how the other captives reacted to it, or rather didn't react to it. They continued whispering into the microphones until the second of the captives started to scream. The two non-screaming captives took the books apart, smeared page after page with their own feces, and pasted them calmly over the glass portholes. The screaming promptly stopped. So did the whispering into the microphones. After three more days passed, the researchers checked the microphones hourly to make sure they were working, since they thought it was impossible that no sound could be occurring with five people inside. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive. In fact, it was the amount of oxygen five people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day, the researchers did something they said they would not do to get a reaction from the captives. They used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping to provoke any response from the people they were afraid were either dead or vegetables. They announced, We are opening the chamber to test the microphones, step away from the door, and lie flat on the floor, or you will be shot. Compliance will earn one of your view your immediate freedom.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

To their surprise, they heard a calm voice respond in a single phrase, We no longer wish to be freed.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Debate broke out among the researchers and the military forces funding the research. Unable to provoke any more response using the intercom, it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the 15th day. The chamber was flushed of the stimulant gas and filled with fresh air, and immediately voices from the microphones began to object. Three different voices began begging as if pleading for their life to turn the gas back on. The chamber was opened and the soldiers were sent in to retrieve the test subjects. They began to scream louder than ever, and so did the soldiers when they saw what was inside. Four of the five subjects were still alive, although no one could rightly call the state that any of them in life. The food rations past day five had not been so much as touched. There were chunks of meat from the dead test subjects' thighs and chest stuffed into the drain in the center of the chamber, blocking it and allowing four inches of water to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how much of the water was on the floor was actually blood was never determined. All four surviving test subjects also had large proportions of muscle and skin torn away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and exposed bone on their fingertips indicating that the wounds were inflicted by hand, not with teeth, as the researchers initially thought. Closer examination of the position and the angles of the wounds indicated that most, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. The abdominal organs below the rib cage of all four test subjects had been removed, while the heart, lungs, and diaphragm remained in place. The skin and most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been ripped off, exposing the lungs through the ribcage. All the blood vessels and organs remained intact, but had been taken out and laid on the floor, fanning out around the eviscerated but still living bodies of the subjects. The digestive check of all four could be seen to be working, digesting food. It quickly became apparent that what they were digesting was their own flesh, that they had ripped off and eaten over the course of several days. Most of the soldiers were Russian special operatives at the facility, but still many refused to return to the chamber to remove the test subjects. The subjects themselves would continue to scream to be left in the chamber and begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on lest they fall asleep. To everyone's surprise, the test subjects put up a fierce fight in the process of being removed from the chamber. One of the Russian soldiers died from having his throat ripped out, and another was gravely injured by having his testicles ripped off and an artery in his leg severed by one of the subjects' teeth. Another five of the soldiers lost their lives if you count the ones that committed suicide in the weeks following the incident. In the struggle, one of the four living suspects had his spleen ruptured and bled out almost immediately. The medical researchers attempted to sedate him, but this proved impossible. He was injected with more than ten times the human dose of morphine derivative and still fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of one doctor. His heart was seen to beat for two full minutes after he bled out, to the point there was more air in his vascular system than blood. Even after it stopped, he continued to scream and flail for another three minutes, struggling to attack another and reach and just repeating the word more over and over, weaker and weaker, until he finally he finally fell silent. The three surviving test subjects were heavily restrained and moved to a medical facility, the two with intact vocal cords continuously begging for the gas, demanding to be kept awake. The most injured of the three was taken to the only surgical operating room that the facility had, in the process of preparing the subject to have his organs placed back within his body. It was found that he was effectively immune to the sedative they had given him to prepare him for surgery. He fought furiously against his restraints with when the anesthetic gas was brought out to put him under, he managed to tear most of the way through a four-inch wide leather strap one on one wrist. Even though the weight of a 200-pound soldier was holding that wrist, it took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under, and he and the instant his eyelids fluttered and closed, his heart stopped. In the autopsy of the test subject that died on the operating table, it was found that his blood had triple the normal level of oxygen. The muscles that were still attached to his skeleton were badly torn, and he had broken nine bones in his struggle to not be subdued. Most of them from the force of his own muscles had exerted on them. The second survivor had been the first of the group of the five to start screaming. His vocal cords were destroyed, he was unable to beg or object to surgery, and he only reacted by shaking his head violently in disapproval when the anesthetic gas was brought near him. He shook his head yes when someone suggested reluctantly that they should try the surgery without anesthetic. I did not react for the entire six-hour procedure of him replacing his abdominal organs and attempting to cover them with what remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it should not be medically possible for the patient to still be alive. One terrified nurse assisting in the surgery stated that she had seen the patient's mouth curl into a smile several times whenever his eyes met hers. When the surgery ended, the subject looked at the surgeon and began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling. Assuming this must have been of drastic importance, the surgeon had a pen and pad fetched so the patient could write his message. It was simple. Keep cutting. The other two test subjects were given the same surgery, both without anesthetic as well, although they had to be injected with the paralytic the duration of the operation. The surgeon found it impossible to perform the operation while the patients laughed continuously. Once paralyzed, the subjects could could only follow the attending researchers with their eyes. The paralytic cleared in their system in an abnormally short period of time, and they were soon trying to escape their bonds. The moment they were again asking for the stimulant gas. The researchers tried asking why they had injured themselves, why they had ripped out their own. And why they wanted to be given the gas again. Only one response was given.

SPEAKER_05 22:04

I must relay Awake.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

All three subjects' restraints were reinforced and they were placed back into the chamber. Determination as to what should be done with them. The researchers facing the wrath of their military benefactors for having failed the stated goals of their project considered euthanizing their surviving surviving subjects. The commanding officer in XKGB instead saw potential and wanted to see what would happen if they were put back on the gas. Researchers strongly objected but were overruled. In preparation for being sealed in the chamber again, the subjects were connected to an EEG monitor and had the restraints padded for long-term confinement. To everyone's surprise, all three stopped struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the gas. At this point, all three were putting up a great struggle to stay awake. One of the subjects that could speak was humming loudly and continuously. The mute subject was straining his legs against the leather bombs with all of his might. First left, then right, then left again for something to focus on. The remaining subject was holding his head off his pillow and blinking rapidly, having been the first to be wired to the EEG machine. Most of the researchers were monitoring his brainwaves and surprise. They were normal most of the time, but sometimes flatlined inexplicably. It looked as if he were repeatedly suffered suffering brain death before returning to normal. As they focused on paper scrolling out of the brainwave monitor, only one nurse saw the man's eyes slip shut at the same moment his head hit the pillow. His brain waves immediately changed to that of deep sleep, then flatlined for the first time at his heart as his heart simultaneously stopped. The only remaining subject that could speak started screaming to be sealed, and now his brain waves showed the same flatlines as the one who had just died from falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal the chamber with both subjects inside, as well as three researchers. One of the named three immediately drew his gun and shot the commander point blank between the eyes. Turned the gun on the mute subject and blew his brains out as well. He pointed his gun at the remaining subject, still restrained to the bed, as the remaining members of the medical and research team fled the room. I won't be locked in here with these things, not with you. He screamed at the man strapped to the table. He demanded, What are you? I must know. The subject smiled.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Have you forgotten so easily? We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at every moment in your deepest animal mind. We are what you hide from your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralysis. We go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot drag.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

The researcher paused, then aimed at the subject's heart and fired the EEG flatlined as the subject choked out.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

That's insane. Okay, so do you so hearing that, do you think that that is something that could have possibly happened depending on like the time, I think.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

I don't know. I mean, like it could be true.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

I mean, uh for me, I know that there are a ton of experiments going on, maybe more so like in the 50s and the 60s.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

That's what I was trying to say.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Yeah, where it's something where even here, I mean, we still had lobotomies until the 80s.

SPEAKER_05 25:46

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

I mean, so which is dumbfound crazy. So for me, I feel like that this is something that definitely could have happened. I know there's been different experiments that people have done on humans to see how they function. I know sleep trials has been one of those things. How long can you stay awake with before going fucking insane?

SPEAKER_02 26:07

And that's I wouldn't want to find out.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

I wouldn't want to find out either. 30 days of staying awake. I'm pretty sure they did die. And like they came back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

And they were just of some possessive spirit or something. Something at that state. So when he says in the end that we are just you, so we're just your inner demons. Maybe it was them, like they're a dark side. So when they died and they came back, it was it was like the Lazarus theory. When you die and you come back, you don't come back necessarily as yourself. You come back as something more sinister. That was a fucking crazy story. And I fucking love scary stories.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

I struggled that with that the entire time, girl. So if you hear me stuttering, don't make fun of me. I'm trying my best.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

It was our first scary stories to tell in the dark.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Girl, that was a long ass story.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

That was a long ass story. You said it was a long story, and I was like, I was like, mine's like probably five minutes, and then you're like, no, girl.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Mine is like 15 to 20.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

I said, oh, I I ain't shit. I'll do better next time on our next series.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

If you don't want to hear me tell this story, you should listen to it. I'm pretty sure somebody narrated it on like YouTube or something like that, and they added like sound effects and shit like that. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

What is it called again?

SPEAKER_02 27:36

It's called the Russian Sleep Experiment.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

The Russian Sleep Experiment. Um of course you just go on creepypasta.com and you can find it there too. Because that's where that's where B found it. Um yeah, that's fucking insane. I don't know what else to say besides I love these types of stories. Like one of my favorite podcasts is um full body chills. Have you listened to that at all?

SPEAKER_02 28:00

What I haven't listened to.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Why are you laughing at me?

SPEAKER_02 28:05

I'm not laughing at you. No, don't do that. Uh it's just this thing with Trixia and Katya.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Yeah. Why? They're like, so like they'll say something funny or like stupid and they'll be like, full body chills.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

I love that you bring up our moms.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

Because we're gonna go see our moms.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

I know in a week.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

In a week.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

I so excited.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

I know. So if you guys are in the Casey area, we're gonna be there uh March 20th through the 21st. We're gonna go see Trixie and Katia for their very bald, very beautiful uh tour. They're doing their podcast on for a live audience. And we're gonna be fucking front row center, bitch.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

We're so ready.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

We're so ready. Oh, there ain't no other way. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_05 28:57

Same.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

So um again, if you're in the area or you want to come chat and yap with us, obviously, I think we'll be out from looking around the town. So if you happen to see us, come up, say hi. We'd love to meet you. Um, and again, yeah, just chat and yap and yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think we would love that.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Come say hi.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Come say hi. And typical, we either see you in Kansas City or you listen to us next time. I'm Ashley.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

And I'm Brandon.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

And this is community technically. Okay, buddy.